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When it comes to social-media
marketing, companies have a responsibility to their fans and
followers -- a.k.a. their customers -- to be genuine, to provide
a service and to add value. When a company is disingenuous or
outright lies, it risks losing the trust of its followers.

Last week, it appeared as though fast-food chain Chipotle was the
most recent company to have its Twitter account
hacked. Followers of @ChipotleTweets saw random, confusing
messages, including:

Mittens13 password leave

Hi sweetie, can you pick up some lime, salt, and onions?
twitter

Do I have a tweet?

But the company recently confirmed to Mashable that its account
wasn't hacked at all. Chipotle faked it, sending those tweets
itself.

A Chipotle representative said the stunt was part of the
company's 20th anniversary promotion. The company created
something called "Adventurito," a 20-day-long treasure hunt and
puzzle series. Chipotle said the strange tweets, although not
immediately clear, were part of that project.

"We thought that people would pay attention, that it would
cut through people's attention and make them talk, and it did
that," the Chipotle representative told Mashable. "It was
definitely thought out: We didn't want it to be harmful or
hateful or controversial."

Chipotle's Twitter account, which has more than 200,000
followers, added more than 4,000 followers on the day of the
"hack" compared to its usual 250 new followers a day.

Earlier this year, MTV and its sister network BET faked having
their Twitter accounts hacked. The effort was largely criticized
as a ploy for attention.

If the weird tweets Chipotle sent were indeed connected to its
Adventurito promotion, it wasn't immediately clear. Faking being
hacked can drum up attention but might not be worth it if it's at
the expense of confusing loyal customers -- especially not if you
lose their trust in the process. People generally don't
appreciate being punked.